Tuesday, August 28, 2012

My children have grown and moved to their own houses...but we encourage them to come home as often as they'd like. I've kept their rooms pretty much as they were in high school, not really out of nostalgia but laziness sounds a bit more honest. Kipp and her husband Andrew visit, bringing the baby and making this grandma very happy. The trouble has always been...sleeping arrangements were uncomfortable with twin beds in the two bedrooms. So, I have been slowly redoing Kipp's room to accommodate Kipp's growing family. I don't really have any "before" pictures...I'm here in Hawaii with my laptop and most old photos are on the desk top in California...but the old room isn't really the story, the new fresh beachy look is. I started with some old old oak pieces...a small side table and a dresser, a smallish room with tan (dingy) walls, mahogany doors and windows. The overwhelming dark of the wood and colored walls made for a dated and oppressive feel. I kept the doors and windows the same (stripping and painting all that beautiful wood was not an option) but I did paint the walls white white white. I got rid of the iron sleigh bed and opted for a white Pottery Barn one instead. The rest was easy beachy blues and aquas.

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Well, once again it's been forever since I've posted. It's not like I haven't been doing things...but I always forget to "document" my projects with photos...and then the finished product is given away before I can share. This new thing is SOOOOO fun, I just had to let you in on it. I saw a post on How About Orange, a cute and clever blog, and knew I had to try it. So fun. As a lifelong silkscreener, the printed image has always held a certain fascination for me. This is along the same lines, but the image actually becomes part of the fabric rather than "sitting on top of it". It uses the sun to "cure" the ink you've applied to the fabric while your stencil blocks the sun from developing where you want your design to remain undyed. It is much like the sun prints we made as children using special paper and leaves as designs. Instead of cardboard cutouts as stencils like the All About Orange post used, I cut out objects from contact paper with my Cricut, adhered them to fabric, painted on the reactive dye and watched the sun do it's magic.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

My 6 month old grandson Kale, assorted children, son in law and girlfriend are coming to visit next week. I'm very excited. We've been busy getting ready for the visit. I thought baby Kale needed a custom sheet for his crib so dug around in my fabric stash for something appropriate. I had a yard of a great Hawaiian print I thought would look good on the mattress as well as matching his parent's room.
I took the crib mattress pad out and just measured around it to get my dimensions right. I ended up with a piece of material 33" x 43".

Next I cut out a notch 3"x3" on each corner

With right sides together I sewed each corner

(makes a pouch to fit over the mattress pad, think fitted sheet)

Bought a packet of elastic at WalMart

Stitching the elastic to the edge of the sheet...pull on the elastic and sew,

Thursday, May 17, 2012

We're back in Hawaii for 6 weeks...good news when we got here there was a check waiting from the gallery. I continue to sell which is fun and as a consequence I need to paint to create some inventory. Here are the latest pieces...

Kauai Plantation House 16x20 watercolor

Orchid 16x20 watercolor

Baby Kale (my grandson) will be here in 2 weeks along with his mom and dad and uncle. We're pretty excited. They're all coming over to visit of course as well as cheer on Ryan and his girlfriend Katie while they compete in the Honu 70.3 1/2 Ironman June 2nd. We've been busy getting things ready for the baby...new crib, new high chair, new car seat...yipppeeeee grandparenting is soooooo fun!

Thursday, April 19, 2012

I enjoyed making the quilted Easter Baskets and thought I could improve on the design a bit. We're heading to Hawaii soon and I always like to have a gift for our caretaker...thought this Hawaiian themed basket would be perfect. I silkscreened the hibiscus designs on white fabric, then sewed them into a patchwork pattern with a contrasting navy cotton. I quilted it using felt so the piece would have some structure and sit by itself without collapsing. I lined them with lightweight cotton. Since I made so many hibiscus squares I was able to make a second basket (always good to have a hostess gift on hand)

Saw this great link for baby booties on Pinterest the other day. Kale is now 4 1/2 months old and may be too big for them, but they're sooo cute I had to make a few pair. Takes a small amount of yarn, very quick and easy. I even made a girlie pair for a friend of Kipp's. Think they'd make a great baby shower gift ...maybe with a matching cap. The ones I made are from leftover "argyle sweater" yarn...so Kale will be quite color coordinated!

About Me

married, 2 grown children (both married) 3 beautiful grandsons I paint (watercolors and oils) have been a printmaker since high school (forever) and since I sew I also enjoy dyeing and printing fabric. In short, I'll try any sort of project